Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. In a harrowing tale about the NSA and surveillance, Waltern Kirn at The Atlantic suggests that if you're not paranoid, you're crazy. The story is fairly lengthy, but definitely worth a read—it explores the surveillance techniques and technology that are currently used to sell us products as well as policies. A bit bone-chilling, to say the least, and a perfect fit for the Halloween month of October.

2. In another heartbreaking example of United State law enforcement's zero tolerance demand to receive 100% compliance from its citizens, an unarmed 17 year-old named Deven Guilford was fatally shot by a Michigan police officer for flashing his high-beams at the patrol SUV to let the driver know that the vehicle's high-beams were activated. In a dash of irony, Sergeant Jonathan Frost pulled him over for violating a state law that requires drivers to "use a distribution of light or composite beam so aimed that the glaring rays are not projected into the eyes of the oncoming driver." In surveillance footage from Frost's body camera, Deven is shown to have been laying face-down on the ground shortly before being tased by a stun gun. Seconds later, the video goes black and gunshots and screams are heard from the teenager. Frost will not be reprimanded by the police department for his actions and was deemed to have acted within the limits of Michigan's self-defense law. However, Deven's family has initiated a lawsuit to sue him. In a statement from the boy's mother, she asks, "Whatever happened to protect and serve?" Whatever happened, indeed—this situation was utterly unconscionable and entirely avoidable.

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